Understanding the pathways to workplace flourishing: the effect of trust and psychological safety in high-pressure work environments

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Introduction: Drawing on the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) theory, this study examines the associations between psychological safety, trust in leadership, and workplace flourishing within the high-pressure, hierarchical context of the Ghana Armed Forces. Methods: Using a cross-sectional quantitative research design, data were collected from 292 military personnel stationed at a single military hospital through stratified sampling (response rate = 78.9%). Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with bootstrapped indirect effects was employed to test the hypothesized model, with Confirmatory Factor Analysis confirming construct validity. Results: The results reveal significant direct associations between trust in leadership (β = .296, p <.001) and psychological safety (β = .111, p <.05) with workplace flourishing. Critically, serial mediation analysis revealed that psychological safety is indirectly associated with workplace flourishing through trust in leadership (Indirect Effect = .0781, 95% CI [.0137,.0939]), suggesting that in hierarchical military contexts, psychological safety function as a climate resource that enables trust development, which in turn is associated with flourishing. While trust demonstrates a stronger statistical association, this does not imply causal precedence. Discussion: The findings extend the JD-R framework to military settings by demonstrating the sequential resource pathway from psychological safety through trust to flourishing at work. Organizations should prioritize creating psychologically safe environments first, as this appears to enable trust development, which then contributes to flourishing. The study offers insights for leadership development in high-stakes environments, while acknowledging that the cross-sectional and self-reported design precludes causal conclusions and limits generalizability.

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